The mess that is the 2013 Ohio University false rape scandal

Never have I been so glad I waited to report on a controversial story before more of the details emerged. Meet the mess that is the fall 2013 Ohio University rape/false rape scandal. First, the facts.

On Saturday, October 12, a male student was filmed and photographed performing oral sex on a female student on South Court Street in uptown Athens, Ohio, in the early morning. Videos and pictures of the event quickly spread through social media. On Sunday, October 13, news broke that the female student was accusing the young man who performed oral sex on her with rape through the university system.

By all appearances, it seemed as though the accusation was false. The accuser smiled at several times throughout the encounter, rocked her hips back and forth, gestured to bystanders, posed for the camera, and even pulled the young man’s head into her crotch. I’m not going to post the videos and pictures of the encounter her. They are available on the worldwide web for everyone to see.

It was obvious that both the man and woman were very, very drunk. I guess the thing that put everyone there at ease was that she never said stop, she never struggled and she never asked for help. She put her hand on the back of his head. She seemed like she was enjoying it, so I guess for everyone there it was like ‘OK, it’s not assault. It’s not rape.’

This was perhaps a first for HuffPo College – a publication notorious for treating all college men accused of rape as guilty until proven guilty – to try for balance. On October 16, the news went international. 10 TV News in the United States broadcast their report, which you can view on YouTube:

Observe the extreme disparity in likes/dislikes, and the most heavily upvoted comments:

You could say that virtually everyone commenting on the internet agreed that this was not, in fact, a rape.

Well, everyone except for Feminists, and their friends who are the regular readers and commenters at Huffington Post College. In her interview with 10 TV News, Feminist student Allie Erwin emphatically said, “It was rape. She reported it to the police as rape.” As if one proves the other. And the usual HuffPo commenters made a showing, as they do almost every time the publication releases an article about an alleged rape:

I’m not sure how race comes into this. Apparently she has never heard of Praise Martin-Oguike or Brian Banks. And trust me folks: as someone who reviews the publication at least every other day, that about summarizes the intellectual and moral caliber of your average HuffPo College commenter.

After watching the video, it was very clear to the majority of people that the accuser and the Feminists who supported her didn’t have a leg to stand on. And so, under the pretense of victim sensitivity, Feminists began attempting to suppress the video and photo evidence by shaming people who made it public. Never did they stop to think that maybe people were sharing the video to provide evidence to counter their own rushes to judgment as Feminists. Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon wrote an article with the headline “Publishing photos of an alleged sexual assault is disgusting and wrong.” She says:

If you want to do a story about the ways in which the images of an alleged rape were horribly, dehumanizingly trotted out across several social media platforms, may I suggest you not republish the images?

On October 18, a user of the website 4Chan named who he thought was the false accuser, along with pictures of her from Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. Peter Nolan, who operates the site Crimes Against Fathers, decided he would go ahead and republish all of that information on his site. The links and images from those two sources then went viral over the internet.

What he might not have expected is that the OU Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones would then publicly declare that the woman named on these sites was not the actual accuser. Although, of course, they didn’t refer to her as just an “accuser.” They kept on referring to her as the “alleged victim,” or just “the victim.” The Post, a local Athens, Ohio publication, reports that “Hall-Jones said [redacted] is ‘100 percent’ not the woman involved in incident, which occurred on at Chase bank, 2 S. Court St., on Saturday.”

All of this created a rather interesting discussion on the A Voice for Men Forums. One user commented on the similarities of the two:

Same haircut, perm, same body proportions, same cheek bones, chin, forehead, exact same top row of teeth smile, [and] exact same hairline.

Either its her, her twin sister, or the T-1000

Another member said:

It’s also very suspicious that no one is coming up with an alternate possibility. If the girl isn’t [redacted], she’s someone else (duh) who looks even more like herself than [redacted] does, and there have to be a lot of people who know who she really is. How could that possibly generate no rumors? I get that maybe school officials are barred from talking about it for legal reasons, and have to lie whether it’s [redacted] or not.

But which is more likely: that A) the girl is someone else and nobody is mentioning her real identity – not the video girl’s ex-friends, not her ex-boyfriends, not busybodies who just like to start trouble and feel clever, not [redacted]’s friends helping her seek the truth, NOBODY, or B) it’s [redacted] and a few key players are lying, some to cover their hides and some because they’re required to to try to keep her “anonymous?”

It’s entirely possible that either is the case. I have no idea.

It is relevant to note that OU Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones is herself a Feminist. This is evident by her writing and her Twitter feed:

You can also hear her talking about using her blog and position to teach students about “rape culture” – something straight from Feminist dogma – starting at 5:20 of this video:

She also talks about talking with faculty about the idea of them sharing her blog with their students (read: indoctrinating students). Given that Feminists almost canonically believe that false rape accusations either don’t happen or don’t matter, this is problematic.

Peter Nolan soon found himself the target of the media, and a new hysteria emerged in support of the [allegedly?]-wrongly-identified-as-the-[alleged?]-false-accuser to counter the earlier hysteria in support of the wrongly accused (which was in part just kids being kids, and in part a reaction to the Feminist hysteria that all men are guilty…because of penis).

In a dazzling display of irony, the media swiveled back to accuse Nolan, and others, of “rushing to judgment in naming the wrong rape victim.” James Nye at The Daily Mail says:

Journalism student, [redacted], was wrongly named on Twitter as the woman in the now notorious images and video of a girl being pinned against a wall while a man performed oral sex as passers-by only stopped to film it.

She was not “pinned,” Mr. Nye. She was sitting there before the young man began to…”service” her. If there was any evidence that she was pinned at any time, it was that in the middle of the oral sex she began to relax her posture and rock her hips. Next from One News Page and The Epoch TimesandAthens Today:

[Redacted], a female Ohio University student, faced online criticism and attacks but she was incorrectly identified as a victim of sexual assault.

Note the irony in play. The very people who rush to judgment by assuming the man accused of rape is always guilty are the same people telling others not to rush to judgment by assuming the false accuser was this person’s name rather than that person’s name. Meanwhile, the administrators who are presiding over the case – who are compelled by education policy to play the role of amateur judges and juries – are complaining that other people who are not qualified experts are behaving like amateur judges and juries.

Now as to whose is really guilty: am I going to sift through, measure, and weigh the scant details available on the faces and bodies of the accuser and allegedly-wrongly-identified-accuser, line by line, to pronounce which one I think is “most likely guilty”?

No. I recognize my limitations, and I’m not going to waste my time or yours. Other authorities will have to decide this case, if indeed it can be decided. But I can say this:

University administrations have 60 days to resolve a sexual assault complaint and establish a “finding” (verdict) and a “remedy” (punishment), according to Title IX guidelines established in the April 4, 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education. As of right now they still have over a month to decide. But if you’re counting on the OU administration to tell you who made a false rape accusation, prepare to be disappointed. For those of you who don’t know, there is a loophole and double standard in education privacy laws regarding victims of rape and false rape accusations.

Update 10/25/13: video and picture

A woman consents enthusiastically and very publically to sex with a man. There are numerous witnesses, photographic and video evidence, and the incident is documented in full.

Yet the woman then claims rape and is supported to the hilt by feminist media outlets.

This is the clearest, best documented example of a real life false rape accusation that anyone could hope for. And it shows perfectly that no matter how clear it is that an incident is not rape, no matter how much evidence and how many witnesses, the accusation can still be made, the university will still prosecute and feminists will still act as if a crime was committed.

I’m not sure we could ask the rape industry to discredit themselves more publicly than this.

Perhaps. If you want to review the evidence, see for yourself below. It’s not like you can’t find it elsewhere. I must warn you that the image and video linked below are graphic in nature.

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About Jonathan Taylor (TCM)

JT/TCM is an advocate of educational equity for men and boys who believes that the world is in desperate need of more good-natured mischief. He is a former college instructor of composition and argumentation and the founder of avoiceformalestudents.com.

Another stellar article Jon. With the internet being one of the only bastions of truth is it any wonder that feminists and their “male allies” are pushing to subjugate it to their rules and whims.

I think my last point is so clearly supported by how the video that vindicates the accused is being, as you said, systematically hunted down on the internet and those who share it/watch it are being shamed.

Colleges/Universities seem to have taken a note of the the FISA Court’s rubber-stamping tendencies and now apply it to condemning the male accused.

Susan Longley

I have followed these unfolding events in Athens over the past two weeks in detail and with interest. I concur with Jonathan’s findings. The outrageous gender bias by university administrators remains disgusting, Jenny-Hall Jones in particular.

Unless there was a second undocumented sexual assault yet to be disclosed, there remains several outstanding issues of concern yet to be clarified. We are lead to believe, if Ms. Jones disclosures are credible, that there are allegedly two female victims. One victim is the subject of rape or sexual assault supposedly viewed in the video/photos. The second alleged victim is the wrongly identified sorority member and fellow Ohio University student apparently “outed” by malicious trolls. Of course no one speaks on behalf of the alleged male victim.

1. The denial that the named alleged victim is not accurate has not been convincing coming from Ms. Jones.

2. The police report that the alleged victim is not the one police have identified as the complainant is equally ambiguous.

3. The alleged victim identified claims she herself has been wrongfully Identified.

In spite of the video and photo evidence the alleged identified victim has received apparent support from the university, her parents and friends. Where no support or public advocacy on behalf of the supposed wrongly identified victim is from her fellow sorority members who would self identify as the shared sisterhood. They know for certain that their colleague was misidentified.

They of all parties known to the wrongly identified victim shared all sorts of intimacies with their sister. They lived together apparently. Unequivocally the members support and stand with each other defending their respective sisters to the end. Where are they? Where are the “harassed” victims’ sisters now that she needs them?

throwawaydalek from /r/mr

Jonathan,

This was excellently laid out. Thank you. I scanned down to figure out if you were some undergraduate and was (a bit) disappointed and not surprised that this is actually your specialty.

I will ask: do we actually know either or both were students? The first reports said they were alum.

I saw the unblocked out photos, and two uncensored videos. At no time did I see anything that said rape it all looked like consensual and pleasurable activities.

However, in the longer video, I can see how several gestures that seem to indicate pleasure and consent, that is, moving her hand to caress the man’s head, and moving her hand and relaxing against the wall, could be interpreted to show how drunk she is as the gestures are slow and possibly indicate unsteadiness.

So not being an expert on intoxication, and truly regretting having no experience in drunken college sex in the 2000s, I can possibly see a claim that she was too drunk to consent.

However, and I think this is significant, in 2007 there was a moral panic over gray rape and many of the scenarios were this scenario almost identically. Two drunk people have sex, wake up, one cries rape, the other cries consensual sex. (google gray rape salon) (or gray rape jezebel or feministing or …)

The feminists were adamant: it was rape and it was the man’s responsibility to determine his partner was too drunk to consent. (And that of course is where the law today mostly stands.)

So It’s fantastic that now gray rape has been videoed in real life!

IF she is determined to be too drunk to give consent, these videos show how difficult it is to judge that in real life. Not only did her partner misjudge that, but so did however many witnesses, men and women were around her. ALL of them, most of them soberish, all of them, though she was giving consent. (I don’t know what witnesses say, the two allegedly posed for photos afterwards, I would be curious to know what is on those photos and what was said in conversation.)

IF it is deemed to be rape, I think it would be important to re-open the question of gray rape. If these many people can get the answer wrong, if drunk people can truly give this many signs of decision making ability and consent, then how can we blame people, how can we make other people responsible for determining her level of intoxication?

IF it is deemed rape, I’d like to see some folks follow up with Tracy Clark-Flory and the rest, show them the videos, and ask them again to defend their stances regarding gray rape and who is responsible for drinking.

And along that line it also opens up the whole “don’t tell girls not to get wasted that’s victim blaming” feminist argument.

http://www.avoiceformalestudents.com Jonathan Taylor (TCM)

The term “gray rape” seems problematic to me, but I need to look into the articles you mentioned regarding it.

On second look, the status of the man is more in question. I’ll look into it a little more and switch out “male student” for “young man” if I find it warrants it.

Dr Darryl Jewett

If she was too drunk to give consent then so was he. If a man forcing a woman to give him oral sex can be interpreted as rape then can’t a woman forcing a man to give her oral sex be interpreted as rape too. Just pointing out the obvious.

throwawaydalek from /r/mr

Mary Elizabeth Williams writes ” It’s gross enough that someone would see a man performing oral sex on a woman on the street and have the immediate response to document it and share it on Instagram. But it’s unconscionable that a media outlet, fully aware that the incident was currently being treated as a possible crime, would then publish it.”

But the fact the woman cried rape shows just how important it is to collect raw unedited video and make it available as quickly as possible.

How many times now has video of a crime led to investigation and capture of wrong doers, or even demonstrated police abuse that counters the official investigation.

Neverendinginquiry

Apologies if this was previously covered and I missed it; with potentially two different women in this case. Is the young man in the video the one definitely accused? Or is the potential rape in question an entirely different occurrence? Thanks.

http://www.avoiceformalestudents.com Jonathan Taylor (TCM)

The young man in the video is the one accused, yes. I have read many accounts of this case and have not come across another being accused.

Dr Darryl Jewett

After reviewing the video(s), clearly both the man and the woman were drunk, the man was raped and the woman not only raped him but she then accused him falsely of rape. And everyone has piled on to support the official persecution of him because they are afraid to condemn the irresponsible and criminal behavior of a woman. He shouldn’t be persecuted but she should. And everyone who has enabled her. How much worse can it get for men in the American education system?

Ima

Don’t fuck her in front of a camera….

Ima

and I hope he sues her for a shit-ton of money….love that increment…

https://www.facebook.com/janet.wilkinson.9047 Janet Wilkinson

I think at this point I would like to lower the tone and say

Boom You got fucking owned bitch !!! How do you like me now !!

Ahem…

J. Good

I would like to point out that I think it’s pretty unlikely the women would have been tempted to call it rape had it not been out there for the world to see. It may have been regretted but it would have most likely been *private* regret. She really screwed up by accusing anyone and should be punished. But they weren’t asking to be filmed and I put as much blame on the dude who thinks it’s *free porn for the world* Who wants their stupidest drunkest moments out their for the world to judge?

Simon

Those found guilty of falsely reporting rape (only if proven without doubt) should be given the same sentence as those who commit rape.